Seb's very meaty meat and mushroom pie!

It seems to be all doom and gloom with the extended lockdown in NSW since Term 2 school holidays. 

So to mix things up a bit, I thought it would be a good idea for the kids to provide one savoury and one sweet dish each week to give their Mama a break from cooking duties. 

Throwing them a few food magazines to get their creative minds working, Seb decided he wanted to make a meat pie, this child of mine is quite a carnivore and loves spice.

With our fortnightly Your Food Collective food box delivery, it's always a fun surprise to see what delicious seasonal produce is provided, so that was our starting point. We also love the meat provided by these ladies, and I can't go past that delicious bacon.

So with gravy beef, osso bucco, mushrooms, beans in this week's delivery, Seb's pie was on the menu for this family.

 Thanks Jamie for kicking me into gear to post this pie recipe.

Ingredients

Meat filling	Vegetable Filling	Herbs	Liquids	Baking
1kg of gravy steak   500g osso bucco   1 tsp black pepper   Season well with salt	2 onions finely diced 2 garlic cloves chopped finely   Season with salt	2 star anise 1 cinnamon stick 2 bay leaves 2 tbsp tomato paste	A good two shakes of worcestershire sauce 200mL red wine 1 stock cube and 3 cups of water (or 3 cups beef stock)   Juice of ½ lemon	2 sheets of puff pastry thawed   2 sheets of short crust thawed
1 cup of cornflour	2 celery sticks cut finely   500g mushrooms cut in half   2 carrots, rough chopped	1 sprig of rosemary, remove stalk and cut leaves finely	Olive oil	Baking ceramic beads   1 egg lightly beaten to glue the short crust and puff pastry/ and brushing on top

1.       Cut up gravy steak into 2-3cm bite size pieces. Leave osso bucco as is. Season the beef with generous amount of salt and black pepper. Then toss beef pieces and osso bucco in the corn flour.

2.       Heat 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Shake off the excess cornflour from the beef and add to the saucepan. Do this in batches, so you don’t overcrowd the pan and the sear the beef all over for 3 mins til the meat gets this lovely golden brown burnish all over. Transfer beef to a plate once this is done.

3.       Use the same pan, add 2 tablespoon of olive oil and add onions and season with salt and add fine chopped rosemary leaves. Once onions have softened, about 4 mins, add garlic and cook for a further minute until fragrant. Transfer to a bowl once this is done.

4.       Using the same pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, add carrots, celery to fry for about 2mins.

5.       Add the onions back in.  Then add the tomato paste, star anise, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, 200mL red wine, Worcestershire sauce, and golden brown beef pieces. Then add the stock if using or stock cube and 3 cups of water and lemon juice. Cover and, turn the heat to low and simmer gently for 2 hours. Don’t forget to stir every 10- 20 mins or so (as you don’t want the mixture sticking to the bottom).

6.       After 2 hours, the mixture will be like a thick gravy consistency, the meat will be tender, the osso bucco will have fallen off the bone. Remove bone, add bone marrow into the meat mixture and break up osso bucco meat. Remove star anise, cinnamon stick and bay leaves as well. Allow mixture to cool.

7.       Preheat oven to 180C

8.       We used a lasagna dish for this family of big eaters. Using two sheets of short crust pastry that have been thawed. You’ll find there will be a bit of overlap in the middle so cut this section out and add to the short sides. Line a sheet of baking paper on top of the pastry, add ceramic baking beads on top and bake for 20 mins. Once this is done, take the baking sheet and ceramic baking beads out and place pastry back in the oven for another 5 mins until the base is a light golden colour. (This will give the base that lovely crisp crunch.)

9.       Fill the pie with cooled meat filling.

10.   Brush edges of the cook short crust pastry with egg before applying the puff pastry (for a delicious flaky golden topping) on top. You will note overlap again, cut the section out and make interesting shapes to apply on top of the lids. Apply eggwash on lids and cut out pieces. Make 4 little incisions with a small knife before placing back into the oven to bake for 30mins.

11.   Devour whilst the pie is hot and fresh topped with tomato sauce with a side of peas and blanched beans. 

Hot tip

Keep left over meat mixture to make mini meat pies later on.

Any left over pie can be reheated in the oven at 180C for 15 mins. 

 

Apple muffins

After apple picking in Bilpin last weekend, I have been working my way through 13kg of Jonathon apples. So far we've had apple tart, apple crumble, apple muffins. I think my next task will be make jam. But before I do, I just wanted to share an apple muffin recipe that the kids have loved, my sister is yet to try as it always gets eaten before she comes over.

So if you have any other apple recipe suggestions, please let me know.

I do love a good apple muffin, I like lots of apple in mine and the Jonathon apples become sweeter and soft once baked. A great combination.



Makes 18 muffins


Ingredients
240g plain wholemeal flour
300g plain flour
5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
300g caster sugar
140g melted unsalted butter
375mL milk
zest of 1 lemon
5 unpeeled apples cut into 1cm dice.

Method
1. Preheat oven to 170 degree Celcius.
2. Line muffin tray with paper cases
3. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, zest and set aside.
4. In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, melted butter and milk.
5. Add the dry ingredients and fold together gently with wet ingredients (keep it lumpy and rough)
6. Add apples and stir gently once more.
7. Spoon mixture into muffin cases and fill them up.

Optional (add a sprinkle of crumble mix on top before placing into the oven)

8. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until nice browned ontop.

Crumble mix
300g plain flour
100g caster sugar
200g unsalted butter cut into small cubes

Method
1. Place flour, sugar and butter and mix with your hands until breadcrumb consistency.
2. Transfer crumble to a plastic container and keep in the fridge for 5 days or freeze for use later.


Options
Feel free to swap with blueberries, or add blue berries or what you have at hand.

Mandarin almond cake

It's been awhile but I've been baking up a storm especially as every event definitely needs cake. When Pepe requested a cake to take to his work's for morning tea, I knew what to do with the recently picked mandarins from Fords Farm.

And surprise surprise it was a winner, picking up a prize for the delicious cake as well as many requests for the recipe.

So with that in mind, here's the recipe.

Mandarin almond cake

Ingredients

4 mandarins

250g caster sugar

6 eggs

250g almond meal

1 tsp baking powder

Icing sugar to serve

Method

1.       Place mandarins in a small pot and bring to boil. 

2.       Boil for 1 hour until soft. (Make sure you check that there is water in the pot or else you'll end up with a burnt mess.) Drain and blitz into a puree and allow to cool.

3.       Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celcius.

4.       Grease and line a 22cm spring form cake tin with baking paper

5.       Use a mixer to beat eggs and caster sugar until well combined for 5 minutes. (It'll look frothy but makes for a light tasting cake)

6.       Stir in the mandarin puree, almond meal and baking powder.

7.       Pour batter into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour until top is golden.

8.       Allow to cool in the tin and dust with icing sugar.

Serve warm, cold and even the next day if there is any slices left.

Signature chicken olive and fennel with preserved lemon

The cool change into winter hasn't done any wonders for my health of late. Hit with the flu at the start of the month to the point of being bed ridden for a few days, then a double whammy of mastitis and laryngitis at the end of the month, things can only look up from here, right?

I've only started feeling like myself after finishing a course of antibiotics and been craving some hearty meals. This tagine recipe has been in my repertoire for a few years and too good not to share.

I love that it's a one pot dish with not very much to prep as I always have one of the kids hanging off me. I love to serve this with wholemeal couscous soaking up the delicious sauce. If you end up with any leftovers, I find that this dish tastes better the next day. Don't take my word for it and see for yourself.

Feeds 4 - 6 people

20 mins preparation
60 mins cooking time

Ingredients

10-12 skinless chicken thigh cutlets

1/2 cup (75g) plain flour

1 tsp paprika

100mL olive oil

2 onions finely chopped

4 garlic cloves finely chopped

2 fennel bulbs thinly sliced

400g can cherry tomato

3cups (750mL) chicken stock

1 tbs honey

1 strip of peel from a lemon and zest from 1/2 an orange

1/4 cup (35g) currants

1 cinnamon quill

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground ginger

16 saffron threads (optional)

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

1-2 green chillies roughly chopped

1/2 cup (60g) green Sicilian olives

1/2 preserved lemon (optional)

Cous cous

200g wholemeal couscous

sprig of mint

1 tbs parsley

1cm of preserved lemon chopped finely

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 Celcius.

2. Place chicken in a bag with flour and paprika. Season and shake until chicken is well covered.

3. Heat 1 tbs oil in a cast iron over med-high heat and in batches, brown chicken turning for 3 - 4 minutes adding more oil as needed.

4. Transfer browned chicken to a bowl to add later.

5. Reduce heat to medium. Heat 2 tbs oil in cast iron then add onion and cook stirring for 5 minutes or until softened.

6. Add garlic and fennel and cook for 2 minutes to lightly soften.

7. Add tomatoes, preserved lemon, olives, stock, zest, currants, spices, fresh chilli and honey.

8. Place browned chicken on top of vegetables and just submerged in stock. 

9. Bake for 1 hour in the oven (or simmer on stove top for 45mins over medium low heat).

10. Remove cinnamon quill and strip of lemon peel.

11. Season with salt.

Making couscous

12. Add 200mL boiling water to the couscous into a bowl and place a plate on top and let it stand for 6 minutes.

13. Fluff with fork and add the parsley, mint and preserved lemon.

14. Serve chicken tagine on a bed of couscous.

Notes:

*This tagine can be refrigerated for up to 48 hours or frozen. To serve, bring to room temperature then reheat in a 180C oven for 20-30 minutes until heated through.

*If feeding for 2 people, I use 2 chicken Marylands with skin and halve the vegetables (1 fennel, 1 onion) and 500mL chicken stock.

*Use a tagine baking dish with lid or if you don't have this a cast iron with lid will do.

*You can substitute the cherry tomatoes with any canned tomatoes tin but I love the pops of flavour with the cherry tomatoes.

*I usually add parsley and mint with a little preserved lemon to toss through the couscous.

Roasted eggplant fattoush

With the last few weeks of my pregnancy, the baby has been taking up valuable tummy space to the point I've can't really fit in big meals. So it has been all about salads. I love Middle Eastern food and the fresh flavours with Lebanese bread.

The two flavours I love most are eggplant and fattoush so why not add these together. The dressing is so good with the sweet and sour notes from the pomegranate molasses and lemon, you'll want to make big match to pour over your salad.

I first made up this salad to have with the Uyghur style lamb skewers. Probably a little too filling to have both the skewers and the roasted eggplant but nonetheless it was delicious.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 medium eggplant
2 tbs olive oil
pinch of salt

1 piece of Lebanese bread
1 tbs olive oil

Salad
1 tomato roughly sliced
1 cucumber roughly sliced
50g feta broken up
1/2 bunch mint leaves
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley leaves
1/4 bunch basil leaves

Dressing
2 tbs pomegranate molasses
juice of half lemon
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp za'atar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celcius.

2. Place eggplant on a baking paper lined tray and drizzle with 2 tbs oil with a sprinkling of salt.

3. Roast eggplant for 40 minutes until tender and set aside to cool.

4. Drizzle oil over Lebanese bread and bake in oven for 8-10 minutes until crisp and golden.

5. Roughly tear bread and set aside.

6. Add tomato, cucumber into a bowl with the mint, basil, parsley leaves and baked Lebanese bread.

To make the dressing
7. Add cumin, za'atar, molasses, lemon juice, 2 tbs oil into a jar and shake until emulsified.

8. Drizzle dressing on the salad.

Handy hint

Za'atar is available at supermarkets used in marinades, salads and dressings. I prefer the taste of za'atar with the hints of thyme, oregano, marjoram, toasted sesame seeds, salt and sumac. Sumac alone is too tart tasting for me.

Pomegranate molasses can be found at Harris Farm supermarket.

I also love this salad with Ughur lamb skewers.

Dutch pancake

I love this recipe as it's perfect when you are time poor and feel like its a pancake kind of day. As I'm on my last legs of my pregnancy, everyday is a pancake kind of day.

This pancake is baked at high temperature in a skillet where it puffs up in the oven then settles down as it comes out. Typically served with a dusting of icing sugar, whipped cream and lemon wedges on the side. It's so delicious.

I love to whip this pancake up and throw whatever fresh fruit I have in the fridge. Today's option was juicy sweet figs.

Makes 1 large pancake

Ingredients

3 eggs
1/3 cup of milk
1/3 cup yoghurt
2 tbs sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
1/2 cup of plan flour

1 tbs of melted butter for the pan

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celcius.

2. With a mixer beat the eggs, adding the milk, yoghurt, sugar, salt and vanilla until sugar has dissolved.

3. Add flour and mix until smooth.

4. Use an ovensafe frypan and coat the bottom of the pan with the melted butter.

5. Pour batter into the pan and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown on top and dark brown around the edges. (Pancake will rise whilst cooking and deflate once removed to cool.)

Beware the frypan handle is HOT. Use oven mitts to handle the hot handle or else you'll burn your palms. Something I haven't forgotten in a hurry.

6. Loosen the pancake around the edges with a couple of shakes of the frypan and slide out of the pan onto a plate.

7. Serve with fresh fruit, a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkling of icing sugar.

Handy hints
You can substitute 1/4 cup of yoghurt with thickened cream which will still give you a fluffy texture. But as I have yoghurt in my fridge at all times, this is what I use.

Uyghur lamb skewers

I first came across Uyghur food during my post graduate university days. On a cold night, my boyfriend now hubby came across this small restaurant with the ceiling covered in the grapes and vine leaves diagonally opposite UTS Library. Sorry to say this place no longer exists. It was at that restaurant, I was introduced to the mouth numbing use of Sichuan pepper, braised and steamed dumplings, handmade noodles, the most tender lamb skewers and delicious chicken potato stew dish.

There are many Uyghur restaurants in Chinatown, Haymarket with their giant tapestries, plastic tablecloths, ceiling covered in vine leaves and cheap décor but the food is what people come here for time and time again.

So who or what is Uyghur you may say. The Uyghurs are a mainly Turkic people whose home is in Central Asia, between Kazakhstan and Mongolia, just north of Tibet in Xinjiang. They're one of more than 50 ethnic minorities in China and speak their own language, Uyghur.

The food is delicious and very comforting. With sciatic nerve issues with walking, it has been harder to go out for dinner so I thought I would try and bring Uyghur food to me with attempting the spice mix on the lamb kebabs that will have you salivating.

The spice mix hits it on the nail and is so good. I dare you try it for yourself.  These are perfect with the eggplant fattoush salad.

Ingredients

1 kg diced lamb (I've tried neck, leg which has worked a treat so far)

3 tbs cumin seeds
2 tbs fennel seeds
1 tbs chilli powder with seeds
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
2 tsp of powdered garlic
2 tsp salt

3 cloves of garlic
2cm knob of ginger

Method

1. Place 20 skewers in water so these don't burn when you place these lamb skewers on the bbq.

2. Make the seasoning by pounding together, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, Sichuan peppercorns, chilli powder, powder garlic in a mortle and pestle and set aside.

3. Add garlic and ginger to the mortar and pestle and pound to a paste is formed.

3. Add the garlic and ginger paste with the powdered spices to massage the seasoning into the diced lamb.

4. Skewer the marinated lamb meat onto the skewers.

5. Put the skewers on the bbq grill and cook for 4 minutes and then turn them. Continue grilling until meat is cooked through, approximately 8-10mins in total.

6. Wait til they a slightly cooled and devour with salad.